Don't hint about your abilities, about your availability, what a good moderator you would make or ask to be considered. These are basically disqualifying.

When the site is in need of a new moderator or two, we find someone to fill the need based upon certain attributes: their participation on the site, their helpfulness, temperament and consistency -- big words, but those are *some* essential ingredients of the role of moderator here. Candidates are basically drafted rather than invited.

Although it's entirely possible and probable that some volunteers would be excellent moderators, history has shown that a large number of those who do, do so for the wrong reasons. The site management has determined that is far more effective to select moderators based upon their activities on the site and the character they have demonstrated.

Said long ago, by Monica:We only want moderators who don't really want to become one.

Unpaid, part-time moderators have the power to delete, move or edit anything they find offensive. Please thank them, because without their efforts, the boards would not be as useful as we think they are.

In any forum that has a host or hosts, you can click the host's avatar at the top of the forum. This will bring up a box telling you who the host(s) are.

Forum mods have powers within their forums only. There are a few site-wide mods who have power in all forums. They are not distinguishable except to other forum mods.

Sometimes the system will hold back comments for special attention. Users can also highlight comments as being inappropriate.

Generally, though, the majority of posts to the forums appear in their original format.

Yes. Even the forums that don't have the avatar of a moderator at the top are still moderated by site-wide mods. These mods may not maintain a presence in a particular forum, but they will be alerted to something requiring their presence by a variety of means.

The Hey Mods button, located at the bottom of all posts in the forums and reviews, is there to help members keep the site "friendly." There is an associated system called the "Queue," where moderators are notified of items needing their attention via the Hey Mods and other means.

When you click on the Hey Mods button, this is the screen you will see:The options are pretty self-explanatory. Items that might call for the Other section could include duplicate posts, threads needing to be moved or anything else not described in the existing options.

Once activated, the item will be brought to the attention of the appropriate moderator(s) responsible for the forum or area that generated the alert, or to one of several "roaming" mods.

Depending upon the nature of the item involved, it might be vaporized, sent to Post Jail, locked, "edited by moderator" or left alone (no action taken). In some cases, a moderator may post a reply to the message.

In the first four cases, use of the Hey Mods produced an appropriate action. It served the purpose of enabling the moderators to watch the site without having to read every single one of the thousands of daily posts.

In the last two cases it did not produce the actions suggested, and thus was an inappropriate use of the system. If this happens more than once, it may be that it's time to become a little more tolerant.

This system is not a way for members to harass others on the site. That is one reason for the limit of 10 hey mods a day. Please see Rules on Posting for additional important information. It's also not a way for you to continue your arguments in a forum you've been banned from. That is certain to extend or widen the current ban.

Not all posts appear immediately. Your post may be delayed so that a moderator can verify that it is suitable. The system has a long list of trigger events that cause posts to be queued. These include: buried email addresses, phone numbers, spam phrases or spammed URLs, file attachments or even posts coming from IP blocks that have spammed the forum in the past.

If your post is on topic and not likely to be flagged by the community as spam, off-topic, flames or worse, then it WILL appear -- often within minutes (day) to hours (night). It depends on how many mods are around and how busy they are.

If you have been WARNED over posts in the past and have ignored the warning, your account may have been flagged so that for a period ALL posts you make are queued first.

Most bans for first warning violations are short (days), so things will be back to normal later. Again, refer to the above paragraph; if your post is on topic, it will appear!

Thank you for your understanding and your contribution in helping to keep the forums civil and useful to all members.

Well, who are these moderators, anyway? What's their interest here ... just guard dogs, are they?

Here is an excerpt from a post in one of the forums which quite eloquently describes one user's view of the site's moderators:

Actually moderators are moderators [not users] first. The most important [consideration] to a moderator should be the site, not what the members want. The moderator places the value of the site as a whole ahead of whatever individual nitpicky things a member wants. It is my belief that the moderators here are chosen not because they are buddy-buddy with other mods, not because they are really helpful, but because they are capable of putting the value of the site as a whole ahead of the value of the members, and [they] share the same vision for the site as the site creator. The members are not always going to like decisions made by the management. I know I always haven't. However, when the management makes these decisions, it is (or at least should be) because they believe that the decision will help make the site a better place to be. Basically, [they] improve the environment and try to make it as unintimidating and as friendly of a place to be as possible. Sometimes what the members want isn't always what is best for the site, and it is the job of the management to decide what is best for the site. We are allowed input via several forums, including this one, to help the management make their decisions. I'm not saying that the management is always going to be perfect, but rather they try to do what's best. Sometimes they screw up, sometimes something new doesn't work at first, but it works again later, but that doesn't make the management super evil people who are out to get you and screw us all. I think that they really do care, otherwise this thread wouldn't be here right now.

---Said by Techie2000 in a post here.---I would quibble with this only slightly: Moderators here do care what the members want, especially when reasonable. However, this is always tempered by what is good for all members, rather than just a vocal few. The assertion above that member input is weighed is correct. A scan of the several forums having to do with site features will confirm that.

Troll:An individual who chronically trolls in the sense that he/she regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that they have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand -- they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics. As such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the Net, as in "Oh, ignore him. He's just a troll."

Please be advised: The term "troll" also applies to situations where an individual intentionally baits another user by posting matter he/she knows will lure the other into responding emotionally. The moderators of this site are adept at recognizing this for what it is, and they will take prompt action to prevent it.